Global Energy Center

The Global Energy Center promotes energy security by working alongside government, industry, civil society, and public stakeholders to devise pragmatic solutions to the geopolitical, sustainability, and economic challenges of the changing global energy landscape.

Welcome, 2020 Women Leaders in Energy Fellows!

WASHINGTON, DC – April 8, 2020 – The Atlantic Council Global Energy Center announced today the selection of its 2020-2021 class of fellows for its Women Leaders in Energy Fellowship. The Fellowship is a one-year, nonresident program for early to mid-career rising women leaders in the energy and climate field with an interest in policy. […]

Coronavirus & energy

In discussions about COVID-19 economic recovery policies, any measures focused on the oil and gas industry are often portrayed as being at odds with a green stimulus. However, a green stimulus within the oil and gas industry is not necessarily a contradiction in terms. Targeted public sector investments in oil and gas activities—especially in the areas of reducing methane emissions, improving energy efficiency, and deploying carbon capture—can curb greenhouse gas emissions significantly and at relatively low costs while maximizing broader near-term economic benefits.

EnergySource Innovation Stream

The Atlantic Council Global Energy Center is excited to launch its new online series: EnergySource Innovation Stream. Building off the Global Energy Center’s EnergySource blog and soon-to-be-announced EnergySource podcast, Innovation Stream highlights new energy technologies with the potential to reshape the global energy system through discussions with companies and individuals working diligently to bring those innovations to market at scale.

Virtual fireside chat series

In response to the coronavirus shutdown, the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center has gone virtual, launching an online, high-level fireside chat series. These conversations spotlight key energy leaders and provide a platform for public engagement on the energy issues that will define the future.

Get Atlantic Council coronavirus analysis and updates

As the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak continues to accelerate its spread worldwide, the international community is facing a global crisis with public health, geopolitical, and economic repercussions. Go beyond the headlines to access the Atlantic Council’s deep expertise in policy areas impacted by this growing global emergency.

New report

Transatlantic cooperation is essential to European energy security, which is and should remain a key national security priority for the United States. European energy security is crucial for the maintenance of a strong European economy and for European political stability, both of which are in the best interests of the United States. This report recommends that the United States and the EU focus their energy cooperation in several areas that will benefit the EU’s efforts to meet climate targets and that, at the same time, will also bolster energy security.

Downstream oil theft has become a global problem. Since most of the world’s energy systems still rely on oil, fuel smugglers are nearly always able to find markets for their goods. Moreover, as oil is not inherently illegal, it is generally an easy product to move, buy, and sell. Profits from oil theft are frequently used to fund terrorism and other illegal activities.

Commentary & analysis

Working with a wide-ranging community of experts and stakeholders, the Global Energy Center provides timely commentary and analysis on the geopolitical, sustainability, and economic challenges of the changing global energy landscape.

The race to net-zero emissions is an uphill one. Despite the effects of climate change mounting and time running out, global energy demand is set to grow 50 percent by 2050. One solution to decarbonizing the global energy system while also meeting rising natural gas demand is carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). However, CCUS has historically been too expensive to be viable, and deployment remains far off track. Enter the Allam Cycle: a novel natural gas power plant design that can theoretically capture 100 percent of emissions while being cost- and efficiency-competitive with advanced natural gas plants.

For years, Eastern European governments and Turkey have bought into a global trend, arguing that long-term strategies in the energy sector should revolve around market deregulation.
In light of the coronavirus outbreak and emergency measures implemented worldwide to contain it, the energy industry may face an increase in interventionist policies such as price controls and consolidation of state-owned enterprises as governments push to mitigate the shockwaves of expected consumer impacts.
Such measures would be detrimental to economies, and there are compelling arguments to suggest that governments should remain committed to their initial market goals.

The conventional wisdom that the United States is the only viable partner for Gulf states is now being challenged by a new reality: the main importer of Gulf oil is now China. At the same time, China’s strategic goals increasingly encompass stability in the Middle East, while a more activist foreign policy under Xi Jinping ensures greater involvement in the security, as well as economic, discourse in the region.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a sudden decline in global electricity demand of up to 20-25 percent in some countries, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects global electricity demand for 2020 will fall by 5-10 percent, contributing to an 8 percent overall drop in energy sector CO2 emissions. This piece updates evaluates the performance of the US and EU power sectors in 2019 within the context of the coronavirus pandemic.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has taken hundreds of thousands of lives and caused unprecedented harm to the global economy. At the same time, the pandemic has diverted global attention away from other matters of concern, notably the Floating Storage and Offloading Vessel (FSO) SAFER, a converted oil tanker moored four miles off the coast of Ras Isa, Yemen, in the Red Sea continuing to degrade after years of neglect. If no action is taken, the SAFER will spill as much as 1.14 million barrels of Marib Light crude into the water. Much of the world’s activity may be on hold, but the ongoing corrosion on the SAFER is not taking a break to wait out the pandemic.

Amid the haze of uncertainty wrought from coronavirus and oil market fallout, clean energy actors will not take a backseat as the world evolves. As the status quo dissolves before a global crisis, and fossil energy markets grow increasingly volatile, renewables and clean tech have an opportunity to chart a new path forward amid the recovery.

Join our team, apply now!

The deputy director will design and participate in events, guide and author research, engage in short-form commentary on current events, meet with and brief key decision-makers and opinion leaders, and execute a strategy for furthering the Atlantic Council’s thought leadership on the transition to a cleaner energy system in response to the imperative of climate change.

In-depth research & reports

Leveraging its broad network of experts, the Global Energy Center produces in-depth research and reports to help governments, industry, and civil society understand and navigate the changing global energy landscape, with the ultimate goal of helping shape a world with secure and sustainable energy.

The Western Hemisphere is full of potential and we have the opportunity to galvanize it into an energy powerhouse. This new US energy strategy for the Western Hemisphere will help raise the global competitiveness of the hemisphere, advance its shared prosperity, and improve national and energy security as a result.

Many oil and gas companies have recognized the need to decarbonize the energy system to avoid the impacts of climate change. Initial industry efforts to play a role in the energy transition show sincerity and promise. Yet the urgent need for more oil and gas production for the foreseeable future suggests that a comprehensive framework for the oil and gas industry to support a low-carbon future while simultaneously ensuring the world has enough energy to meet development and economic growth goals has yet to be fully developed. What role can the oil and gas industry play lead the way to an energy-rich, globally prosperous, low-carbon future?

Energy Advisory Group

The Atlantic Council’s Energy Advisory Group (EAG) comprises a small number of the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center’s highest-level partners and stakeholders. The EAG meets at least twice each year to discuss the GEC’s vision and strategy, and it remains in close contact with the GEC’s founding chairman and director throughout the year to provide guidance on areas of growth, programming, and fundraising. The EAG is chaired by David Goldwyn, former US Department of State special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs.

Global Energy Center events

The Global Energy Center regularly convenes government, industry, civil society, and public stakeholders to discuss pragmatic solutions to the challenges presented by the rapidly changing energy landscape, working to enhance energy security for countries and individuals around the world.

Upcoming events

Past events

ONLINE EVENT – Musabbeh Al Kaabi, CEO of Mubadala Investment Company’s Petroleum & Petrochemicals platform, discusses the changing global energy outlook in the wake of COVID-19, the growing role of ESG in the energy sector, and the importance of diversification in oil-producing countries, particularly during periods of low oil prices.

The Future of Nuclear Power project produces research and programming that analyzes the nexus between nuclear power and national security, as well as the role of nuclear power in the energy transition.

The Global Energy 2050 Project examines the impact of potential future energy mix scenarios on geopolitics, energy markets, and geo-economics. Through a process of modeling the interactions of key drivers and energy consumption phenomena and production at country, regional, and global levels, the project builds scenarios to investigate broad geopolitical and market impacts across different timescales and test policy options which seize opportunities and minimize risk.

The Atlantic Council Global Energy Center’s Women Leaders in Energy Fellowship is a one-year fellowship program for early to mid-career rising female leaders in the energy and climate field with an interest in policy.

The Veterans Advanced Energy Project is designed to drive US leadership in advanced energy by recruiting, equipping, and empowering military veterans who understand the importance of the evolving energy landscape to our future security and prosperity.

Spotlight: 2020 Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi

Held Under the Patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Armed Forces.

The Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi is the premier international gathering of government, industry, and thought leaders to set the global energy agenda for the year and anticipate and respond to the dramatic changes in the world of energy. Convened in partnership with the Ministry of Energy of the United Arab Emirates, ADNOC, and Mubadala, the forum is part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is projected to experience significant demographic growth by 2050, growth which will have to be met with commensurate economic expansion and job opportunities, or the region will risk an increase in political instability. To meet this challenge, countries in the region must diversify their economies beyond the energy sector and expand their energy sector beyond hydrocarbons. What are the key trends that MENA countries will have to contend with, what is already being done, and what further steps should be taken?

A widening gap between perceptions and reality of the global energy markets could increase volatility as governments, policy makers, and industries struggle to tackle climate change, according to Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency.

“There are some who believe that gas should play no role in the global energy mix,” Ambassador Richard Morningstar, founding chairman of the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center, said at the introduction of a panel on the future of gas at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum hosted in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on January 12, 2020. At the other end of the spectrum, he added, some have “called gas a destination fuel that provides a clean baseload energy needed for the developed world to grow.”

Content

The recently released report, Restoring America’s Competitive Nuclear Energy Advantage, commissioned by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Nuclear Fuel Working Group, is an important step forward for US national security, the battle against climate change, and the health of the US economy. After decades of misguided policy, this report puts the United States back on track in leading a worldwide nuclear energy system that is effective, reliable, and carbon free.

WASHINGTON, DC—June 1, 2020—On behalf of the Atlantic Council, President and CEO Frederick Kempe has announced his membership in Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy (GCNP), a leadership network that brings together heads of organizations working in nuclear policy who are committed to breaking down gender barriers and making gender equality a working reality within their […]

In discussions about COVID-19 economic recovery policies, any measures focused on the oil and gas industry are often portrayed as being at odds with a green stimulus. However, a green stimulus within the oil and gas industry is not necessarily a contradiction in terms. Targeted public sector investments in oil and gas activities—especially in the areas of reducing methane emissions, improving energy efficiency, and deploying carbon capture—can curb greenhouse gas emissions significantly and at relatively low costs while maximizing broader near-term economic benefits.

Continued energy cooperation between the United States and the European Union has been key in reducing Europe’s energy dependence, but now must also help guide both countries out of the coronavirus economic crisis and cut global emissions in the face of continued climate change.

In Turkey, the world's steepest coronavirus infection curve is now declining precipitously. The country can offer lessons to others as it may have found a way to keep the economy partially—or even largely—open while taming COVID-19, though there is still a way to go.

Transatlantic cooperation is essential to European energy security, which is and should remain a key national security priority for the United States. European energy security is crucial for the maintenance of a strong European economy and for European political stability, both of which are in the best interests of the United States. This report recommends that the United States and the EU focus their energy cooperation in several areas that will benefit the EU’s efforts to meet climate targets and that, at the same time, will also bolster energy security.

The race to net-zero emissions is an uphill one. Despite the effects of climate change mounting and time running out, global energy demand is set to grow 50 percent by 2050. One solution to decarbonizing the global energy system while also meeting rising natural gas demand is carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). However, CCUS has historically been too expensive to be viable, and deployment remains far off track. Enter the Allam Cycle: a novel natural gas power plant design that can theoretically capture 100 percent of emissions while being cost- and efficiency-competitive with advanced natural gas plants.

For years, Eastern European governments and Turkey have bought into a global trend, arguing that long-term strategies in the energy sector should revolve around market deregulation.
In light of the coronavirus outbreak and emergency measures implemented worldwide to contain it, the energy industry may face an increase in interventionist policies such as price controls and consolidation of state-owned enterprises as governments push to mitigate the shockwaves of expected consumer impacts.
Such measures would be detrimental to economies, and there are compelling arguments to suggest that governments should remain committed to their initial market goals.

Downstream oil theft has become a global problem. Since most of the world’s energy systems still rely on oil, fuel smugglers are nearly always able to find markets for their goods. Moreover, as oil is not inherently illegal, it is generally an easy product to move, buy, and sell. Profits from oil theft are frequently used to fund terrorism and other illegal activities.

The conventional wisdom that the United States is the only viable partner for Gulf states is now being challenged by a new reality: the main importer of Gulf oil is now China. At the same time, China’s strategic goals increasingly encompass stability in the Middle East, while a more activist foreign policy under Xi Jinping ensures greater involvement in the security, as well as economic, discourse in the region.

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